Disabling stdout buffering of a forked process

Question

I wrote a code in C/C++ which forks a child process, duplicates the stdin/stdout into a pipe ends and calls execvp.

Everything is working fine (i.e. the output from stdin/err/out is captured by the parent process)

The problem is that the child stdout is buffered.

so if the child code looks like this:

printf("Enter any key and hit ENTER:\n");
fgets(line);
printf("read: %s\n", line);
exit(0);

In the parent process I don't see the line 'Enter any key:' - it will be "flushed" only after the program calls exit (which auto flushes the stdout buffer) or an explicit call to 'flush(stdout)' is added

I did some research and tried adding a call to disable the stdout buffering by adding a call to:

setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, 0); just before calling execvp(...) in the parent process

so the relevant code looks now like this:

int rc = fork();
if ( rc == 0 ) {
    // Child process
    if(workingDirectory.IsEmpty() == false) {
        wxSetWorkingDirectory( workingDirectory );
    }
    int stdin_file  = fileno( stdin  );
    int stdout_file = fileno( stdout );
    int stderr_file = fileno( stderr );

    // Replace stdin/out with our pipe ends
    dup2 ( stdin_pipe_read,  stdin_file );
    close( stdin_pipe_write );

    dup2 ( stdout_pipe_write, stdout_file);
    dup2 ( stdout_pipe_write, stderr_file);
    close( stdout_pipe_read );

    setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, 0);

    // execute the process
    execvp(argv[0], argv);
    exit(0);

}

With no luck.

Any ideas?

EDIT:

here is a sample of the parent code, the only thing needs changing is the path to the child executable:

#include <unistd.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/select.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <string>
#include <string.h>
#include <cstdio>

static int   read_handle(-1);
static pid_t pid;

bool read_from_child(std::string& buff) {
    fd_set  rs;
    timeval timeout;

    memset(&rs, 0, sizeof(rs));
    FD_SET(read_handle, &rs);
    timeout.tv_sec  = 1; // 1 second
    timeout.tv_usec = 0;

    int rc = select(read_handle+1, &rs, NULL, NULL, &timeout);
    if ( rc == 0 ) {
        // timeout
        return true;

    } else if ( rc > 0 ) {
        // there is something to read
        char buffer[1024*64]; // our read buffer
        memset(buffer, 0, sizeof(buffer));
        if(read(read_handle, buffer, sizeof(buffer)) > 0) {
            buff.clear();
            buff.append( buffer );
            return true;
        }

        return false;
    } else { /* == 0 */
        if ( rc == EINTR || rc == EAGAIN ) {
            return true;
        }

        // Process terminated
        int status(0);
        waitpid(pid, &status, 0);
        return false;
    }
}

void execute() {
    char *argv[] = {"/home/eran/devl/TestMain/Debug/TestMain", NULL};
    int    argc = 1;

    int filedes[2];
    int filedes2[2];

    // create a pipe
    int d;
    d = pipe(filedes);
    d = pipe(filedes2);

    int stdin_pipe_write = filedes[1];
    int stdin_pipe_read  = filedes[0];

    int stdout_pipe_write = filedes2[1];
    int stdout_pipe_read  = filedes2[0];

    int rc = fork();
    if ( rc == 0 ) {

        // Child process
        int stdin_file  = fileno( stdin  );
        int stdout_file = fileno( stdout );
        int stderr_file = fileno( stderr );

        // Replace stdin/out with our pipe ends
        dup2 ( stdin_pipe_read,  stdin_file );
        close( stdin_pipe_write );

        dup2 ( stdout_pipe_write, stdout_file);
        dup2 ( stdout_pipe_write, stderr_file);
        close( stdout_pipe_read );

        setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, 0);

        // execute the process
        execvp(argv[0], argv);

    } else if ( rc < 0 ) {
        perror("fork");
        return;

    } else {
        // Parent
        std::string buf;
        read_handle = stdout_pipe_read;
        while(read_from_child(buf)) {
            if(buf.empty() == false) {
                printf("Received: %s\n", buf.c_str());
            }
            buf.clear();
        }
    }
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    execute();
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

Actually, after struggling with it a bit, it seems like the only solution to this problem is by making the 'parent' process pretending to be a terminal using the OS pseudo terminal API calls.

One should call 'openpty()' before the fork(), and inside the child code, he should call 'login_tty(slave)' the slave is then becoming the stdin/out and stderr.

By pretending to a terminal, the buffering of stdout is automatically set to 'line mode' (i.e. flush occurs when \n is encountered). The parent should use the 'master' descriptor for readin/writing with the child process.

The modified parent code (in case anyone will ever need this):

#include <unistd.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/select.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <string>
#include <string.h>
#include <cstdio>
#include <pty.h>
#include <utmp.h>
static int   read_handle(-1);
static pid_t pid;

bool read_from_child(std::string& buff) {
    fd_set  rs;
    timeval timeout;

    memset(&rs, 0, sizeof(rs));
    FD_SET(read_handle, &rs);
    timeout.tv_sec  = 1; // 1 second
    timeout.tv_usec = 0;

    int rc = select(read_handle+1, &rs, NULL, NULL, &timeout);
    if ( rc == 0 ) {
        // timeout
        return true;

    } else if ( rc > 0 ) {
        // there is something to read
        char buffer[1024*64]; // our read buffer
        memset(buffer, 0, sizeof(buffer));
        if(read(read_handle, buffer, sizeof(buffer)) > 0) {
            buff.clear();
            buff.append( buffer );
            return true;
        }

        return false;
    } else { /* == 0 */
        if ( rc == EINTR || rc == EAGAIN ) {
            return true;
        }

        // Process terminated
        int status(0);
        waitpid(pid, &status, 0);
        return false;
    }
}

void execute() {
    char *argv[] = {"/home/eran/devl/TestMain/Debug/TestMain", NULL};
    int    argc = 1;

    int master, slave;
    openpty(&master, &slave, NULL, NULL, NULL);

    int rc = fork();
    if ( rc == 0 ) {
        login_tty(slave);
        close(master);

        // execute the process
        if(execvp(argv[0], argv) != 0)
            perror("execvp");

    } else if ( rc < 0 ) {
        perror("fork");
        return;

    } else {
        // Parent
        std::string buf;
        close(slave);

        read_handle = master;
        while(read_from_child(buf)) {
            if(buf.empty() == false) {
                printf("Received: %s", buf.c_str());
            }
            buf.clear();
        }
    }
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    execute();
    return 0;
}

Answer 2

Would inserting a call to fflush(stdout) after the printf not suffice?

Otherwise setvbuf should do the trick:

setvbuf(stdout,NULL,_IOLBF,0);